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Sony Executives Tone Down Movie The Interview – Concerns of North Korea Blacklash

D-Bo , Dec. 15, 2014, 11 a.m.

A Sony Pictures' comedy about the attempted assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been toned down at the request of the corporation's chairman, who worries about backlash from North Korea. The revelation follows a hacker attack on the company that resulted in the leak of private staff emails and several unreleased movies and may or may not have originated in the North.

Some of the more tasteless scenes were removed or heavily edited, including a key shot of Kim struck by a tank shell, causing his hair to catch fire and his head to explode, Bloomberg News reported Friday quoting leaked emails.

In an email to Sony Corporation chairman Kazuo Hirai on Sept. 28, Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal pledged to delete the face melting shots from the assassination scene. She also promised to obscure much of the head explosion with flames.

In a reply the next day, Hirai asked Pascal to use her influence on the filmmakers to revise the scene. Pascal then told Seth Rogen, the film's director, producer, and star, to tone down the death scene. Rogen resisted at first but later complied.